Spanning the Wishkah
A new bridge contract connects Young Street in North Aberdeen to Second Street in France's Addition.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The contract for a new bridge across the Wishkah River was signed Tuesday. The San Francisco Bridge Co. will be the builders, and it will be as near as possible a duplicate of the bridge now being constructed between Heron and Front streets. The design is a Howe truss draw, counter-weighted, with a total length of 280 feet, consisting of one span of 200 feet and a clear opening of 125 feet, with a twenty-foot trestle approach at the south end and a sixty-foot trestle approach at the north end. The bridge will have one 16-foot wide roadway and two 4-foot wide foot walks, with a floor height of not less than 7 feet above high water. The cost is $5,250 and completion is expected within ninety days.
“One by one are the rapidly growing city's wants being supplied.”
Infrastructure in 1891 Aberdeen was a race against the rapid growth of the timber industry, with bridges being built almost as fast as the population. Today, those same crossings remain vital conduits for the city's identity, though they have shifted from wooden trestles to the modern steel and concrete spans that define the Wishkah waterfront.
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